Month: August 2005

There’s an amusing entry today over at The Bad Astronomy Blog.

According to a NY Times article published today, “64 percent [of Americans] said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution…”

This is fascinatingly scary! Of course, I also understand where it is coming from: [Disclaimer: I’m not a statistician, or an Poll designer, so these opinions expressed are just that] Americans love fair play, and that lends the Intelligent Design proponents a bit of an edge where the questions are designed “neutrally”.

Another quote from this article I find enlightening is this: “More of those who believe in creationism said they were “very certain” of their views (63 percent), compared with those who believe in evolution (32 percent).”

Call me crazy, but doesn’t this sound like the answer differential between a fundamentalist who is sure about what they know and a person who acknowledges that they might not know all the answers? If I don’t know about something, I’m certainly not going to say “very certain” on a survey.

I’m a bit disappointed that more people aren’t “very certain” when it comes to their views about evolution. I believe that is due to the complexity of the topic vs. the simplicity of creationism.

Let us leave it that we need to do better at grass-roots education of our neighbors and co-workers that teaching creationism in science classrooms is not a good idea if we plan to have a respectable science establishment in this country.

Diamonds have been demoted! They are no longer the hardest material in existence. Suffice to say that Mr. Buckminster Fuller is getting his due name recognition.

Here are some example Bulk Moduli for common material. Notice the one at the bottom; wow.

Here’s a nice paper calculating the possible modulus of C60.

Very cool Astronomy Picture of the Day, today.

Anyone who knows me relatively well, or has listened to me spout about the Flying Spaghetti Monster, knows that I’m a skeptic. Psychic abilites, astrology, ghosts: I’m not down with that. There are reasons which I could elaborate on, but they are beyond the scope of this entry.

Alternative medical treatments such as the various herbal supplements, acupuncture, acupressure, etc., deserve more cautious evaluation because they haven’t been thoroughly investigated yet. Although, I point you to a past entry stating that Echinacea is ineffective.

The NY Times today had an article about the growing “new” applications of leaches and maggots by mainstream surgeons.

This rings of that scene from Gladiator after General Studly-Man was captured by the slavers and had his wounds cleaned by maggots.